Hot Topic
by anonymousxgenius
Summary: Word games never had such a big part in getting two people together. The thing is that even with eveything spelled out for her, Lily just can't sort everything out so quickly. JL
1. Hot Topic

_The format will be something like this- each chapter uses a different word game. I'll probably reuse games like Hot Topic (as it's the title). Hot Topic is an original game I made up, but I do not own Scrabble, or other such games. I also don't own rights to the Harry Potter universe in any way, shape, or form, except for the plots I make up for fanfiction stories such as this one._

Ch. 1

* * *

"Let's play Hot Topic!"

Lily looked up from her book. "Why?"

"Because I say so." Before Lily could repeat herself, Alice continued, "And I say so because I'm bored." Alice was an exuberant girl of fourteen and rather curvy. She had straight brown hair with blonde highlights, freckles, and eyes that switched between brown and dark blue without notice.

Frank looked up from his own book with a raised eyebrow. "Gee Alice, it's nice to know my company is appreciated," he teased.

"You've been reading that book for an hour already! There's only so long a girl can wait in silence!"

"Yeah, Frank- at least I can admit I'm boring," Lily joked. "Wait- Are you reading that upside down?"

A faint blush appeared on his cheeks, but he managed to retort, "Yeah- who's boring now? It's from Xenophilius Lovegood from fifth year."

Lily smirked, "I know- He gave a special edition. It's hard- cover and charmed so it reads right side up."

Alice broke in. "Only with Philius would you have to _charm_ his stuff right side up," she said disapprovingly. A sly smile came across her face. "I must say, Lily, special edition? He must really like you."

"What?!"

Frank smiled, amused, but came to Lily's rescue. "Alice- what is Hot Topic again?"

"Frank! I've explained it to you every year for four years! How do you not remember?" All she got in reply was a sweet smile and a shrug. She sighed. "We made it up in first year too… You were there…" She lamented, but explained it to him. "First, we come up with a subject. One of us will walk out of the compartment. The first thing he/ she sees would be the topic. Then we take turns to describe the topic with a couple words and you have to have alliteration."

Frank, who had been watching Alice's face as she talked, blinked. "Oh, um... right. Yeah- so let's start!"

Lily stood up, "I'll find the topic." She slid open the door, and lifted her foot to step out before she was slammed to the floor.

"Merlin, Lily are you okay?! Lily!" a high pitched voice yelled urgently.

Lily cracked an eye open and said, "For the record Alice, the first thing I saw was the hallway carpet." She steadfastly ignored the concerned caramel eyes focused on her.

James looked confused. "Um.. I'm not Alice."

Lily snapped, "I know that! I'm not blind, Pothead!" Pothead was Lily's affectionate nickname for James (or so he liked to say).

Alice gently pushed James out of the carriage with a warning look. She knew how James felt- and quite honestly, she felt a little bad for him. Especially considering he was a fifth year- a popular, smart, and friendly one at that- he reached out to everyone in the school (except for select Slytherins). But she trusted that Lily to make the right decisions for herself. Of course, she could meddle a bit.

As she slid the door closed, she turned around. "Hot Topic #1: James Potter."

Frank frowned slightly, but didn't say anything. He trusted Alice to know what she was doing.

Lily's jaw tensed, but otherwise showed no reaction. She spoke calmly, "I thought I said that the first thing I saw was the floor?" as if she were just curious.

Alice knew she should back off when Lily was like this- Lily had a calm before the storm policy. But maybe if she acted oblivious?

"Oh, come on Lily! Floors are boring! And in contrast, James Potter is interesting and yummy!"

Frank's frown deepened now. He could empathize with James and all, but he didn't like this way of helping him.

Lily sent Alice a hard look. A muscle in her cheek flexed. "Fine," was all she said before putting a book in front of her face, ready to ignore her carriage companions for the rest of the ride.

"Lily…

Lily… C'mon."

Frank tentatively put his hand on her shoulder. "Alice, just let it go…"

"No! Lily…"

Lily didn't move.

Silence reigned for an hour before Frank said, "Lily… You know none of us are happy right now. Talk."

Lily finally relented. "About what?" She smiled tightly.

Alice and Frank both smiled back- Alice shyly, Frank encouragingly.

**

* * *

In the dorm after the Welcome Feast that night… **

Lily, Alice, Melinda, and Dorcas were all sharing a dorm. Lily was the last to shower, and was just coming out of the bathroom in her robe and drying her hair to find the three other girls sitting on their beds waiting for her.

"What?"

"We were waiting to play Hot Topic!"

"You could have played without me." Lily said somewhat warily.

"Yeah, but you come up with the best allitera- thingies!"

"Okay, so what's the topic?"

"Oh! Oh! James…." Dorcas said with a dreamy sigh. Melinda swooned with her.

Lily looked suspiciously at Alice, but Alice was just staring at them with wide eyes before catching Lily's eye and twirling her hair around her finger in the universal 'loony' symbol. Lily decided to go along with it.

"Okay… Let's start…"

"Hmm… I'll start. Exquisite and extremely entertaining." Dorcas came out of her trance.

"Oh- that's good!"

"Sensibly smart."

Lily raised an eyebrow at this, but said nothing.

Alice went next. "Lamentably loyal."

The girls paused for a moment working out how that made sense.

Lily finally muttered, "Insanely insensitive."

The other girls rolled their eyes.

"G'night."

"What? Just one round?"

"Yeah- sitting in a train for ages is really exhausting.."

"True.. very true…"

"Good night."

"G'night."

"Don't let the bugs bite!"

"Yes Alice" they chorused.


	2. Scrabble

Ch. 2

When Alice woke up the next morning, the first thing she was aware of was of mumbling from the bed next to hers.

"Juicy James…" Lily's voice was sickly sweet. Alice struggled not to laugh.

Lily's voice turned dark, "Uniquely unreliable. Leapfrogging loquacious lout!" Alice was bent over- only Lily could come up with something like that.

Lily's voice turned reluctant. "Admittedly admirable ambiguity." Alice's laughter slowed- Was Lily finally becoming okay with Potter? Well, Lily might not know it yet, but still... Right then, Lily's eyes flew open to see Alice staring at her from the floor with wide eyes.

"Good morning?"

* * *

The teachers had surprised the seventh years with less homework than normal for their first day back. After dinner, they were all relaxing in the Common Room when Alice pulled out Scrabble.

"My intelligence needs to stretch."

"That it does," Dorcas agreed.

Alice swapped her. "Not like that! I meant that my brain feels like it needs to keep working- it was expecting more exercise today."

"Oh… Oops. Well, you should watch you phrase things- I can't help it that you said you felt you were somewhat daft!"

Alice paused. "_What?_" She was struck by how many 'you's were in the sentence. When it sunk in a second later, she said, "Oh. Well, you didn't have to agree if that's what you thought!"

"I was just being polite." Dorcas replied innocently.

Alice growled. "Yeah, right. Now let's play."

**30 minutes later…**

Lily was quite clearly in the lead. Marlene was about to complain about Lily's 'unfair' advantage as a muggle- born, as well as an extremely smart witch with a huge vocabulary, when Sirius bounded in.

"Ooh.. What muggle game is that?"

James came running in after, and stopped in the portrait hole. "Padfoot!" He sounded furious. Remus appeared slightly out of breath at James's shoulder.

Sirius looked up with wide eyes before taking off running in circles around the room. James took off after him. Remus, after a second of thought, took off in the opposite direction. Sirius, or Padfoot as James called him, was caught in the middle. He ran through center of the room, jumping over the girls. His foot swiped the board, ruining the game, but the girls were distracted enough to not care. James caught him just as Remus swung the portrait back down. Sirius whimpered, stretching out his arm toward the door. James and Remus were dragging him up the stairs to the boys' dorm when Marlene stopped them. "What did he do this time?"

"This time? I'm hurt, Marlene." Sirius said, joking even while in chains.

James grunted, and Remus explained, "He decided to prank a little on Prongs and I."

Hearing this accusation, Sirius began struggling again.

Lily, curious, asked, "What exactly did he do?"

Sirius looked at Lily like she was daft. Was she trying to dredge up the anger in them? Does she have no pity on him?

James replied darkly, "He messed with our food."

"Um.. okay?" said Lily, confused.

Realizing that Lily still didn't get the full concept of what Sirius did, James pulled off his wizard's hat grimly. Sticking out of his head were two miniature antlers.

Alice and Lily spoke together with identical raised eyebrows. "Cute."

Sirius, still trying to appeal to James's brotherly nature, said, "Hey James- they can do it too!"

He shouldn't have drawn attention to himself. James shoved his hat back onto his head and proceeded to drag Sirius up the stairs.

"Wait! What are you going to do to him?" Lily asked nervously.

James glanced back at Lily. And back at Sirius. He sighed, "We're probably going stick him to his bed, and set a Tickling charm on him. He hates going to bed early anyhow…."

Seeing Lily's shocked look, he shrugged. "It's in the Code. The professors know they don't need to do anything when one Maurader messes with another- we hold our own court martial among the four of us. Anything extra would be too much punishment."

Lily looked back at the girls and they all exchanged looks with each other before charging up the stairs behind the boys. They got to the door just in time to see Remus set a Tickling charm on Sirius. Sirius started laughing involuntary, his eyes resigned.

Alice edged over to Remus. "How are you guys going to sleep tonight?"

"Just watch."

James lifted his wand. "Silencio." Sirius shook silently. As tears began to fall down his face, it looked like he was crying in pain than from laughter. James waved his wand again and the curtains around Sirius's bed shut.

"Sorry you girls had to see that. What?" He just noticed Lily watching him with narrowed eyes. He hoped it wasn't another rant of right and wrong. He snorted in his head. What was wrong was her not agreeing to even be friends. But he digresses- it wasn't his place to say so.

Lily shook her head. "Nothing- can I see those antlers again?"

James cautiously removed his hat and bent down slightly. Lily took out her wand and muttered something before James could move. James tensed reflexively at someone pointing a wand at him, but he didn't feel anything wrong with him. Lily didn't look like she was angry…

She waved her wand again. A yellow light glowed from the tip of her wand. The light spread out toward James's head, and wrapped around his antlers. He felt a tugging sensation on the antlers that was almost painful, and then it disappeared. He patted his head to make sure the antlers were gone before he smiled gratefully at Lily. "Thanks."

She just nodded, about to turn away, when he stopped her with another question. "Won't you get in trouble for using magic outside of class?"

"Let's just say it was a project for advanced Charms, all right? Chapter 17- Indentifying and Healing Strange Absurdities."

James, surprised, nodded. That was really nice of her. Then Remus walked over to him. "You know that she really is working on a project with that topic, right?"

Oh. Well, it was still a nice gesture. James looked up, "What about you, mate? I can just blame the nickname. Sirius's little gift to you might give just the right hint…"

Lily just heard a few words from their whispers. She walked up to them. They immediately stopped talking. She pointed her wand at her own eye and then at Remus. A blue light shot out. Remus shuddered, but then smiled.

"Thanks, Lily."

She smiled back. "No problem- you know I like to help."

James looked back and forth between the two, before saying in a loud whisper, "She knows?"

Remus smiled tightly and gave him a small nod. "I suppose- she's hinted at it, but it never added up to much. She could see where the damage was though- That's why she pointed at her eye before she worked on me. That way only she could see what happened."

James rocked back and forth. Lily helped people, she understood- ugh, this was not helping him or his feelings.

When they all said good night, the girls left with only slightly anxious looks at Sirius's bed. Only Lily looked at his bed with an amused glance, rather than a concerned one.

"You don't seem too worried about our friend here," James observed.

All Lily said was, "He's _your _friend."

Even though it sounded somewhat unfeeling at first, James understood what she meant. Sirius was his friend- he would never actually harm Sirius without good reason.

He opened the curtains around Sirius's bed, and undid the Tickling charm. Sirius looked somewhat relieved, not even bothering to fidget on the bed. In fact, he looked rather expectantly at James, who conceded.

"No insults!! We had a civil conversation!" James let out an excited laugh. He ran to the door and muttered something, pointing his wand down the stairs.

Lily was cleaning up their Scrabble game. The other girls were going to help her, but she shooed them upstairs with the single command to save some water for her.

She was about to place a J in the box when something caught her eye. A silver stag loped over to her. The stag nudged her hand and the bent down to touch his head to the floor. Lily placed down the J. The stag rose and sifted through the letters. He picked another one, which Lily laid on the floor too. After quite a few rounds of this, the letters on the floor read

_J A M E S H A T E S L I L Y_

It hurt to see that. She knew the patronus what James's. She might not like him, but she certainly didn't hate him. She was about to pick them up but the animal stopped her. The stag tapped the E in HATES and tapped the space between H and A. She was confused, but placed the E where the stag signaled. It now read JAMES HEATS LILY. That didn't make sense. The stag reappeared pushing an R that she had missed from around the corner of an armchair. Pushing it with his hoof, he eventually placed a crooked R between the A and the T.

J A M E S H E A _R_ T S L I L Y

Lily was surprised, to say the least. What was this supposed to mean? Did James tell his Patronus to do this? She felt just as scrambled as the letters still in the bag. She picked up all the letters from the floor carefully. When she was done, the stag was gone.

She went to bed with the question- Did James really like her or was it just her imagination?

Silly, she told herself. Why would she imagine it? She didn't like him. In fact, that made things that much more complicated. But she couldn't help having a little doubt as she fell into bed.


	3. Interlude

_Okay- this is a short interlude. I was watching The Perfect Man starring Hillary Duff (I had forgotten what the story was) and I just loved this little word play scene. So I applied it here. I do not own The Perfect Man, the script, or Harry Potter characters. Oh, and by the way Alice, Dorcas, and Marlene are all sisters in this chapter. They may or may not be in the rest of the story, but in this one, they are._

"T-l-C. Tic." Marlene started off.

"Trick." Alice responded.

"Stick." Dorcas mumbled through a mouth full of food.

"Come on,Lily… Play the game. Give us a word with "tic" in it." Alice coaxed. Lily had been quiet lately- ever since that night they played Scrabble and had the 'Sirius Incident.'

"Fine. Tragic."

"Fantastic," Marlene encouraged.

"Pathetic," Dorcas retorted. Marlene shot her a glare.

"Ecstatic," Dorcas said with a fake smile, rolling her eyes.

"Thank you."

"Sarcastic," Lily broke in.

"Psychotic." Marlene muttered.

"Genetic." Alice and Dorcas sang back.


	4. Hangman

Ch. 4

At the other end of the table, the Marauders were eating breakfast. Or rather, Sirius was moodily eating breakfast while the others watched in amazement. Sirius actually _eating_? As in taking a bite and _chewing? _They had never seen the likes of it! Sirius always inhaled food- they weren't sure he even knew how to chew… Well, they did now, but…

Finally, Sirius looked up at them. "What?" he complained. He had no sleep and his muscles were all sore. After an hour of talking about Lily, James had recast another Tickling Charm on him, albeit a much more mild one, but it was enough to have him bucking around on the bed for the rest of the night. He shot a dark look in James's direction before brightening up a bit.

"Let's play Hangman!" Sirius has a strange obsession with muggle word games- language was one of the few things he saw as a connection between the muggle world and the magical.

The other Marauders exchanged glances. They had learned about it in second year, but never played it at the table. It was because of Sirius actually. Sirius had always insisted that food was for more important than words. So they had always played it in the dorm or the common room. But how could they refuse? Even if it was from (justified) punishment, Sirius did look rather horrible…

* * *

At the head table, Dumbledore watched amusedly. He nudged McGonagall, and gestured at the boys. They watched together as the boys set up.

* * *

"Um… Okay.." Remus looked slightly concerned, but agreed reluctantly.

James and Peter merely nodded their agreement.

"Fantastic!"Sirius suddenly looked a whole lot less pitiful, and the three couldn't help but wonder if he was playing his puppy eyes trick on them. It was too late to go back though. Sirius had already pulled a thin stack of parchment, several quills, and a bottle of ink out of his bag, and was quickly sketching in the noose and the blank lines where the letters would go.

"Okay- it's a phrase," he said gleefully.

James and Remus gave him a suspicious look, and Remus started shooting out letters.

"J."

"A."

"M."

"E."

"S."

"Wait- that's my name! Remus…" James said questioningly.

"I have a theory." is all Remus said before he touched his wand to the parchment. Ink seeped up to the surface of the parchment, filling in the rest of the blanks. It read,

J A M E S I S W H I P P E D

James narrowed his eyes, and then all eyes snapped to Sirius. There was what appeared to a bottomless bucket floating over Sirius's head, pouring water on his head.

Sirius spluttered, spitting up water.

"You know you are, Ja- a- a," Sirius choked out. A fish slid out of the bucket and plopped on his head.

Lily and the girls were staring, visibly surprised.

"James Potter!"

James looked up to see a Lily Evans standing up on the bench, shocked and borderline furious.

"Lily!" Alice, doubly shocked now, tugged at Lily's pant leg. "What are you doing?!"

Lily looked down, just realizing exactly what she had done. James, on the other hand, was recovering from his own shock.

"Yes, Lily?" he replied cheekily.

* * *

Eyes glued to the action before him, Dumbledore absentmindedly conjured up a bucket of popcorn. He offered some to McGonagall, which she politely declined.

* * *

Lily blinked. Struggling to maintain her calm, she said whatever came to mind, "Do you realize that with the rate the water's going at, Sirius is pretty much _drowning_?!?!" She waved her wand at the falling water, which promptly froze in mid air. Sirius, not quite sure if he could move, wriggled in place, trying to shake off as much water as he could.

"And all that for a game of hangman? Honestly!" She continued to (fake) rant.

James opened his mouth to respond, but paused before any sound came out. "How did you know we were playing hangman?"

Lily froze. How did she know?

She waved her hand at James. "Um… It just seemed to be floating through your head…" she said casually. A few snickers could be heard around the room.

James immediately turned around. Floating just out of reach was the image of their hangman game. Fiery letters were appearing on each blank. Quickly, he waved his wand at the flaming lines above his head. They burst into an amazing array of fireworks just as the first 'P' appeared.

There was a silence. Only the Mauraders and Lily saw the 'P' before it disappeared among the sparks. Lily was thinking furiously over what all this meant, James was just plain furious, and the other three were trying to make a quick getaway, shoving each other as the backed away. The rest of the Hall was watching them, silent, until they heard one person clapping.

Dumbledore was leading the applause heartily, throwing whatever popcorn kernels he had left over in his bucket in the air. Sirius, Remus, and Peter bowed and waved before running out of the Great Hall. James quickly bowed as well before running out behind them, his eyes never leaving them. When all eyes turned to Lily, she made a flustered curtsy, before also quickly excusing herself.

At dinner, the Marauders made a small prank to get everyone to stop talking about happened that morning. Remus told Lily about it in Transfiguration, and her confusion only increased when Remus told her that it all James's idea. Why would he tell her that? But it was a gesture she appreciated, and if James came up with it, she was thankful to him as well.

She noticed that James was missing at dinner, but didn't think much of it. She wasn't hungry though, and left dinner early. She turned the corner to Gryffindor tower, when she bumped into James. They smiled awkwardly at each other and tried to continue on their way. They kept moving the same way though, until James finally gave up and walked with Lily to the dorms. They spoke at the same time.

"Lily-"

"James-"

They stopped at the same time. James, continued somewhat sheepishly. "I just wanted to say sorry about earlier. It's kind of bad attention, so I just wanted to apologize about that."

"Oh," said Lily, surprised. "Well, thank you. It's fine, really. Remus told me about the prank- he said you came up with it to take everyone's attention off of what happened this morning. So thank you for that too, I guess"

"What? He wasn't supposed to tell you that. I mean, not the part about me coming up with-"

Lily cut him off, "James-"

He stopped talking.

"Do you… like me?"


	5. Perquackey 1

_This one doesn't have a game theme- Sorry about that. And it's pretty short... I guess it's something of an intro for the next chapter, Perquackey._

Ch. 4

* * *

"Um.. Well, yeah." And then he ran. And ran. And ran back to the Great Hall. Where he found the Hall in chaos from the prank, so he promptly turned back around and started to run again.

Back in the corridor, Lily was rooted in spot. She wasn't quite sure what to do with this information. In a way, she was glad James had run. This way, she wasn't pressured to say anything. On the other hand, she knew there was no avoiding a confrontation eventually. Without realizing it, she started walking to the dorms. She made it to her bed without incident. Her roommates came in soon after, but she faked sleep, and they didn't bother her.

The problem was that she couldn't actually fall asleep. She couldn't stop thinking about all that happened. James liked her… It wasn't that bad. She wouldn't have thought it a week ago, but he _was_ loyal. He was smart too- the pranks were proof of that, no matter how criminal the evidence was. And he was pretty nice- he had apologized, and it wasn't even his fault… It wouldn't be too bad to date him… She allowed herself to imagine it for a moment and just like that, she had a crush on him. Just a small one, though- she wouldn't let it blind her, but she was on her way. If there was a confrontation, that was what she would tell him. But even with that, she couldn't fall asleep

Once she was sure everyone was asleep, she snuck out to take a walk. She was pacing the corridor outside the common room when she heard some breathing nearby. When she turned, she saw a door from which the breathing seemed to come from. Curious, she pulled open the door.

"James?"

He turned to her with wild eyes. Recognition flashed in his eyes. "Lily? What are you doing out here?"

"I could ask the same thing. What happened?" She sat down next to him.

He quickly explained everything that happened. Some people who were pranked weren't looking at him very favorably, so he ran from the Great Hall until he got here. He caught his breath here and decided to wait it out just in case they had followed. He fell asleep and woke up to realize that he couldn't open the door. And then Lily came by and well, here they were.

"Your turn- why are you out and about?"

"Couldn't sleep," Lily said shortly.

"Ah."James remembered why he started running in the first place. He had no idea what to say. Finally he muttered, "We should get to bed. Classes tomorrow and all."

"Hmm? Oh right." Lily followed him out. As they were about to split ways, she spoke. "Hey, James?"

He turned around. "Yeah?"

"Have you ever played Perquackey?"

"I'm not confused!" he exclaimed surprised, and somewhat angrily. _Did she not understand he liked her?_

_"What?!" _Lily looked genuinely confused.

"No- what are you talking about?"

"It's a muggle word game. I could show it to you sometime." She hesitated. "You could bring Sirius and the gang too…"

"Um… Yeah- That'd be great." James shot her a quizzical smile before he disappeared up the stairs. _Women... _

Lily registered the smile a little too late to reply, so she trudged up her own stairs to the dorm as silently as possible. Well, now she could get to know James a little better.

It was just as she was falling asleep that the thought crossed her mind. _Does he think this is a date?_


End file.
